I was in the 5th grade at St. Jude elementary school on Detroit's east side when the OLA fire happened. I remember our teacher telling us about it, and then bringing in newspaper articles about the tragedy and having us remember the OLA students in our daily prayers. I think one of the newspapers she brought to class one day must have been from Chicago, because it was one with individual photos of all the kids who'd died in the fire, and seeing children my age who had died scared the living daylights out of me. I had nightmares about being trapped in burning buildings. Many years later, I was on vacation with my mom and the fire alarm in the hotel started ringing in the middle of the night. I bolted up immediately, grabbed our purses, and guided my sleepwalking mom down the stairs and outside. There were only a handful of other pajama'd people standing outside, and most were grumbling about the inconvenience. A man from the hotel office came out and announced "false alarm" and urged everyone to return to their rooms. But I was scared, and decided to walk around the building outside to calm down. When I got to the back, I smelled smoke. I dashed to the office, had the guy call 911, and about five minutes later we heard a loud "kaboom." Luckily, the fire department arrived right after that, and put out a fire that had started (and luckily was contained) in the laundry room. Moral of the story: take EVERY fire alarm seriously!!
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